Money that was once spent on alcohol can now be redirected towards more rewarding and fulfilling experiences, such as vacations, hobbies, or savings for future goals. Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) combines behavioral therapy with medications to treat substance use disorders. It’s particularly effective for opioid and alcohol use disorders.

You can find healthy ways to deal with problems.

• This is the most obvious and immediate benefit of being sober.
• When you remove substances from the equation, you will rediscover the person you truly are — a person worthy of love, respect, and limitless potential.
• Knowing relapse signs can help you recognize your risk of relapse, and they may include a return to addictive thinking patterns and compulsive behaviors.
• Although we may often hear this from medical doctors, it is hard to internalize unless we experience it first-hand.

People who are sober greatly decrease their risk of liver cirrhosis and liver damage. Studies also show those who don’t drink can reduce their chances of developing certain cancers and neurological disorders. A structured routine will help you achieve other goals in your life, whether they are short-term (like being on time for work) or long-term (like going back to school and changing careers). Some of the immediate changes you reasons to stay sober will need to make will be obvious—like not hanging around the people that you used with or obtained drugs from.

Mental and Emotional Wellbeing

• When you’re in recovery, you get a good amount of people asking you dumb questions.
• This can include toxic relationships in which you feel unheard, misunderstood, unsupported, demeaned, unsafe, and/or attacked.
• You don’t have to try and wrack your brain to remember who you were with or what happened.
• Stay sober so that you can remain positive and be a role model to others.
• There arealcohol blackouts, meaning you don’t remember anything that happens.

Now you finally get a chance to repair the harm you caused in the past as a result of drinking and using. If you are seeking drug and alcohol related addiction rehab for yourself or a loved one, the SoberNation.com hotline is a confidential and convenient solution. Sobriety has made it so much easier for me to fall asleep at night. I realize that when bad shit happens, its not the end of the world.

Finances and Career

Feeling guilty or ashamed of past behavior or actions during active addiction is natural and healthy. A mental health professional can help you cope with some of the challenges you’ll face on your path to sobriety. Research shows that if you maintain these types of toxic relationships, your chances of relapsing are greater.

Benefits of Sobriety

In addition, sobriety can boost your self-esteem and self-confidence. By staying sober, you prove to yourself that you have the strength and willpower to overcome addiction, which can greatly improve how you perceive yourself as a recovered alcoholic. This newfound confidence can spill over into other areas of your life, such as your career and personal aspirations. Moreover, staying sober improves the ability to focus and concentrate, enhancing productivity and cognitive function. Individuals who maintain sobriety will experience more restful sleep and feel more rested the next day.

• This is a treatment that first prevents someone from using their substance of choice and then provides information about the harm of using.
• That is much easier to handle than drunk shenanigans that got out of hand.
• And it wasn’t just the cute little forgetful moments when you walk into a room and immediately forget why you’re there.
• However, even if you are not experiencing these types of negative outcomes from alcohol use, heavy drinking can affect your life in a number of detrimental ways in both the short- and long-term.
• Your mind may tell you it’s hopeless and that no one will ever trust you again.
• Then, they don’t have to learn how to love themselves because they’re covering their feelings rather than dealing with them.
• Some people come to rely on alcohol as a coping mechanism.

Once you do return to work, it’s important to create a budget and take steps to safeguard yourself as work stress can be a relapse trigger. If PAWS is severe or if you’re experiencing prolonged symptoms, a medical professional can help you work through them and remain in recovery without relapse. The symptoms involved in PAWS can be a barrier to recovery if you’re not careful. In addition to being able to recognize them, it’s important to know when to seek help. The anxiety and tension that comes along with being an addict or alcoholic is hard to explain. If you are sitting you want to stand, if you are standing you want to sit.

• If there’s someone in your life that you lost to addiction or that doesn’t do the right things because he or she is an addict, maybe you should stay sober just so that you are not like that person.
• Because I was a mental and emotional wreck with no sense of self-worth, it was easy to take advantage of me.

Taking care of your organs is one of the positive effects of sobriety. Drinking alcohol can stress or impair these functions, leading to organ damage. The good news is, quitting drinking, even if it’s for only a month, allows your body time to heal. Being sober greatly contributes to liver health and regeneration.